Dr Vanessa Heggie - Expedition physiology: The history of medical research

We think of scientific experiments as lab-based affairs in sterile environments, but what are the questions surrounding extreme medical research? Sam talks to Birmingham Fellow, Dr Vanessa Heggie, a historian of modern science and medicine in the Medical and Dental School at the University of Birmingham. Vanessa's research considers the history and ethics of physiological research at the boundaries of survival, specifically research conducted at the limits of altitude and temperature. Vanessa explains: 'They use the mountain as a model to make mountaineers unhealthy, to then study them in a way that they couldn't study people who are in accident and emergency.' But just how new are these methods of radical and potentially dangerous medical research?